The development of electronic commerce has to date relied generally upon the use of validation systems that predate the Internet and cellular telephones capable of digital data communication. For example, the purchase of software downloadable via the Internet has been possible for some time, but it is normally carried out using charge accounts. The customer selects software for purchase and provides a charge card number and other information to the software vendor via a secure encrypted connection. The software vendor then contacts the credit company by way of a separate channel using a digital protocol, and requests verification of the information that the customer provided. If all of the information is in order the credit company authorizes and guarantees the sale. Thus the vendor obtains validation from the credit company and allows the download to proceed.
Credit companies usually charge a percentage of the purchase price for their services. For this reason, the current systems for purchase of content via the Internet or other communications networks are in general not well suited to small purchases (“micro-payments”) of, for example, less than a few dollars. An exception to this is the model used by telephone carriers for providing services such as directory assistance for a small charge and by the iMode cellular network system provided by NTT DoCoMo in Japan. In each case, the carrier itself either is the content provider (in the case of telephone carriers) or deals with the content providers (in the case of iMode) and provides the content directly to the user. While the iMode business model works for small amounts of data provided at low prices, it does not appear to be of interest to telephone carriers in North America, possibly due to the need to deal with a multitude of content providers.
A need exists for a method and system for validation of requests by customers for electronic content that (1) does not involve the validation service provider in the handling of large amounts of data representing the content and (2) is able to handle a variety of payment methods, including subscriptions, prepaid accounts, and micro-payments for content in a cost efficient manner for a large number of content providers.